Lorraine Staples was born in Windsor, Ontario and grew up in Don Mills, Oakville, and the Niagara Peninsula.

She received her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Western Ontario. While working at raising two sons and holding a variety of jobs in Northern Ontario and Manitoba, the one constant was a love of drawing and painting.

Lorraine’s art education was started with numerous courses at Northern College in Timmins. She continued her education with a certificate program from Fleming College’s School of the Arts in Haliburton. She has participated in many solo and two-artist exhibitions, as well as many juried shows.

Lorraine is now a full-time artist. She hopes to further explore the use of vibrant colour to express her love of the countryside surrounding Peterborough and the beauty in plants, flowers and the landscape found everywhere.

"My main concern while I am painting is the colour. While I think about the composition, thevalues, the lines, and the textures, I keep coming back to what the colour is saying and the feeling it is evoking.

Sometimes I paint large close-ups of flowers, thinking more about the lyrical lines and the flow of movement, than about the actual flower itself. I generally paint flowers in acrylic so that I can take advantage of the quick drying nature of the paint to layer colour.

I often like to paint landscapes out of doors during the warmer months and use oil paint to get the richness of the colour and the texture of the brushstrokes. Whatever the subject matter or medium, the enjoyment of creating an interesting image provides the motivation to keep working”.